Welcome to DBSTalk

Welcome to DBSTalk. Our community covers all aspects of video delivery solutions including: Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS), Cable Television, and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). We also have forums to discuss popular television programs, home theater equipment, and internet streaming service providers. Members of our community include experts who can help you solve technical problems, industry professionals, company representatives, and novices who are here to learn.

Like most online communities you must register to view or post in our community. Sign-up is a free and simple process that requires minimal information. Be a part of our community by signing in or creating an account. The Digital Bit Stream starts here!

Dish owns the satellite. Dish owns the camera. Dish owns the channel slot that DISH Earth is showing on so no negotiations for carriage. Dish doesn't own Speed HD, Dish doesn't choose the price it is being sold at to carry, a bit tougher to negotiate a carriage agreement than with DISH Earth.

Dish owns the satellite. Dish owns the camera. Dish owns the channel slot that DISH Earth is showing on so no negotiations for carriage.

And Charlie chose to put out the money for the cameras on the satellite, pay for the operation of the cameras, and pay for the costs to send the feed to me and all other subscribers using monies derived from our subscription payments. So there appears to be some loose change somewhere at Dish when the time comes this summer to renegotiate with News Corp. I think is wonderful to know, as I was afraid I'd not only not get FX in HD, but might lose FX in SD.

(Yeah, yeah, I know that the camera costs were committed prior to Dish's economic collapse, but the ongoing costs are still there.)

"In a hundred years there'll be a whole new set of people."
"Always poke the bears. They sleep too much for their own good."

And at only 4 frames a minute and an existing audio feed the bandwidth used is miniscule.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I suspect there is no uplink either.

As an SD channel the bandwidth is minimal. It *IS* uplinked as part of the mux for the transponders it is on ... to both 110 and 77. The pictures you see are downlinked via a special telemetry channel at slow speed. Having this channel available certainly is easier than figuring out how to receive and decode the slow scan video.

BTW: I believe DISH could put up a free porn channel and some would still complain that it wasn't Speed HD or FX HD. People want what they want ... and even the best channel in the world won't satisfy if it is not the one they wanted. Adding this channel does not prevent the addition of any other channel.

BTW2: What ongoing costs? The cameras are there ... they could turn them off but what would it save?

I used to work at a satellite providers and always liked watching pictures of the Earth from space. Considering DISH already had cameras pointed to the Earth; it makes sense to at least get a birds eye view of the western hemisphere. It also could be useful to tracking large storms.

On the negative side, as night time crosses about 1/2 the Earth, the camera does not adjust its iris to reduce sun glare, which makes the picture look more like watching a total solar eclipse. If DISH could monitor the channel and reduce the glare; we might be able to see a night image of the western hemisphere as well.

For those who do not like the channel, then we take the Earth view for granted. It was in 1968 that the people of Earth got to see the Earth rise from the moon (Apollo 8) for the first time. It was awe inspiring then and it is still today. If nothing else, with the current economic turmoil; it is a good channel to escape to just to decompress.

Exactly. I think it is neat. I don't understand why people are so bent out of shape over it. For those of you complaining about bandwidth and cost, start your own satellite service and run it the way you like.

BTW: I believe DISH could put up a free porn channel and some would still complain that it wasn't Speed HD or FX HD. People want what they want ... and even the best channel in the world won't satisfy if it is not the one they wanted. Adding this channel does not prevent the addition of any other channel.

... and it doesn't do much for it either. Yeah it free but who would pay for it. Let me know when this "SD" channel becomes more requested then SPEED or FX.

and I cant beleive the amount of people that think this channel is a plus

Thomas Edison would have loved it.

AN OLD GEEZER WHO REMEMBERS THE DUMONT TELEVISION NETWORK AND IT'S TOP RATED "CAPTAIN VIDEO AND HIS VIDEO RANGERS", TV NEWS ANCHORMEN WEARING HATS DURING THE NEWSCAST, ONLY 180 SECONDS OF COMMERICALS EACH HALF HOUR, 3 STATIONS ON THE AIR WITH THEIR TEST PATTERNS AIRED FROM 2 TO 3PM, PROGRAMMING FROM 3PM TO 11:30 AND SIGNING OFF AT 11:30PM. HOW COULD I FORGET THE SINGLE FRAME VERTICAL ROLL WHEN THE STATIONS SWITCHED FROM NETWORK TO LOCAL OR LOCAL TO NETWORK AND THE TIME TONE ON THE HOUR.

The geek in me finds this channel extremely cool; I mean come on, it's like you're sitting on the satellite looking back at Earth. Just seeing the vantage point of a satellite in real-time I find very interesting and fascinating, even if you don't see a lot happening in real time.

No matter how amazing it might be, between now and May 24 how many hours of total viewing by Dish subscribers is this thing going to get? And would anyone choose Dish over cable or DirecTV because of it?

Paying for the Earth Channel doesn't make me unhappy. But Dish Network, unlike the technology company Echostar, is a retail service company that is sitting on the edge of financial non-viability.

It's management makes mundane financial decisions that make me worry about my TV signal subscription choice and could make me very unhappy in the long run. Those decisions do amaze me though, and not in a good way.

For half the day it's more like a bad abstract painting than Earth. A combination of glaring white and black or all black. Image is really only useful when the full disk is illuminated. People who work all day will only see Earth on weekends.

OTOH, I switched to it early this AM and was rewarded with Dylan's "Tangled Up in Blue", which was a nice way to start the day. Apparently they're going to use a variety of Sirius channels for the background music.

Dish owns the satellite. Dish owns the camera. Dish owns the channel slot that DISH Earth is showing on so no negotiations for carriage. Dish doesn't own Speed HD, Dish doesn't choose the price it is being sold at to carry, a bit tougher to negotiate a carriage agreement than with DISH Earth.

It's management makes mundane financial decisions that make me worry about my TV signal subscription choice and could make me very unhappy in the long run. Those decisions do amaze me though, and not in a good way.

God gave you free will, you can always move on if you hate it that much. But come on, this doesn't cost DISH squat, your money isn't even in play here. It is not uncommon for sat's to have camera's on them, its just the first time anyone has made them public. Oh and let's not forget the millions of young people and schools that might like it. Just cause your old and don't appreciate the earth doesn't mean everyone isn't in awe if it.

This thread just goes to show that people will complain and bitch about anything if given the opportunity.

Absa-frickin-lutely! (+1)

"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair." - Douglas Adams

"Who would rule a nation when he could have easier work, such as carrying water uphill in a sieve?" - Robert Jordan